Seminar Series - Childhood in the Middle Ages

The father of the historical study of childhood, Philippe Ariès, stated in his book Centuries of Childhood that during the Middle Ages “the idea of childhood did not exist”. This seminar will examine whether this claim can be supported: was childhood considered a distinct stage of life with its own needs and characteristics? What was life like for children in the Middle Ages? Does childhood have a history which is culturally determined and forms distinct historical periods? How can the insights which history can yield be set against the claims of other disciplines such as biology, psychology and anthropology to explain childhood? Particular attention will be paid to manuscript illuminations which represent childhood, like the boys playing on a swing below.

Children at play in the margins of the Romance of Alexander, a manuscript of c.1340
in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

October 2010